Gas and liquid contact apparatus



fl- 1941- E. J. LYONS ETAL 2,268,219

GAS AND LIQUID CONTACT APPARATUS Fil ed March 14, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 12 INVENTORS Enema/2.1 [yo/24' 604M012 Mariam:

Filed March 14, 1940 E. J. LYONS ETAL GAS AND LIQUID CONTACT APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 i, jzj amons mama/2 yam BY do/"0'02? Mariam: M, M 1' n};

" fle ATTORNEYS I "onthelineHoiFigmand Patented Dec. 30, 1941 Gas Ann LIQUID CONTACT APPARATUS Emerson J. Lyons, New York, and Gordon Mac- Lean, Flushi ng, N. Y., assignors to The Turbo- Mixer Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corpora- .tion 01' New York This invention relates tmapparatus ior treating liquid with gas or vice versa. One example of the treatment of liquid with gas is the hydrogenation of vegetable oil, 1. e. the, treatment of vegetable oil with hydrogen to efiect a chemical.

combination of the hydrogen with the vegetable oil. One example of the treatment of gas with a liquid is the washing of air to remove dust particles suspended in the air or to remove soluble vapors which may be present in the air;

Gas and liquid contact apparatus is old and well known and is used for many industrial purposes of which the ones mentioned above, are

While apparatus is merely specific examples. available which is satisfactory in a sense for some purposes, certain disadvantageous limita-' tions in such apparatus have persisted. Among these limitations are inefficient use of the as in Y treating liquid, so that large quantities of the gas are wasted; long time of treatment required to reach the desired result either when treating a liquid with gas or vice versa; and large consumption of power required to effectively contact the liquid with the gas or vice versa.

General objects of the present invention are to provide apparatus which so efiectivelycontacts liquid with gas, or vice versa. that the materials .are eflfectively and efiiciently utilized, and that reaction or operating time is diminished.

. Another objectwis to provide gas and liquid contact apparatus which, with relatively large size liquid drops (when such is desirable) can nevertheless rapidly and effectively contact the liquidwith the gas or vice versa. 4

- A further object of the invention is to provide apparatus applicable for efiectively treating a large volume 0! gas with a relatively small volume of liquid, thereby reducing the requirements as to amount of liquid in use, as to liquid replacement, and as to power consumed.

An additional object is to provide gas and liquid contact apparatus which automatically I maintains optimum operatingconditions despite a measure of variation in-the liquid level in the apparatus.

Various. additional and specific objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the accompanying disclosure.

.Fig. 1 of the drawings is a partly diagrammatic central vertical section or an apparatus embodying the present invention Fig. 2 is a plan view of -a' disseminating impeller shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken approximately Application March 4, 1940, Serial No. 323,872

Fig. 4 is a detail view in elevation, lookin from the line l4 in Fig. 2.

Reference will first be had to Fig. 1. A closed.

tank designated as a whole by 5 has a cylindrical Lwall portion 6, ahopper-shaped bottom portion 1,,and a removable cover 8. This tank is arranged to have liquid space 9 at the bottom and gas space ill at the top. Piping with associated valves II and [2 provides for admission of liquid 10 into the tank and also draining of the tank.

vWith valve l2 closed and valve H open, liquid is admitted to the tank from inlet I, it being understood that the liquid supply is under pressureor at .a higher level. With valve ll closed and valve l2 open, the tank is drained through outletl5.

If desired, a broken siphon device It may be used to prevent accidental filling of the tank with liquid to more than a desired level. Tube I1 is open to the air; and with valve I8 standing open, the liquid level in'the tank is limited to that shown in the drawings, any excess liquid passing out through outlet i9. By turning the gooseneck is coupling Hi the broken syphon de- 26 vice It can be set on an incline and thereby limit the liquid level in tank 5 to lower values than shown in the drawings. In case-it is desired to fill the tank with liquid to a level higher than shown in the drawings, valve I8 can be closed 30 and tube -l'1 (when made of glass) can be used as a gauge glass indicating the level of liquid in the tank. Some processesrequire heating or cooling of the contents of the tank. For this purpose the tank maybe provided with a jacket or with coils .(or both) through which heating or cooling fluid is circulated, as is well understood in the art.

Suitably mounted within the tank is a vertical conduit 2|! having its lower end open to the 40 liquid space 9 and its upper end open to the gas space l0. Depending co-axially into this conduit is a rotatable shaft 2| carrying liquid-feeding impeller 22 and a'disseminating impeller 24. Impeller 22 is of a well known type but may be provided with a drain hole 23, so that liquid will not be held on top of it when the tank is drained. Adjacent to impeller 22 the conduit 20 is provided with a throat 25. Betweenv impeller 24 and the top of the conduit there is a flow directing and controlling restriction 21 which is preferably large enough to pass impeller 22 during assembly or disassembl When the shaft fi ls rotating the impeller 22 continuously draws liquid from the liquid V pace 9 and causes it to be discharged from the Petry 2,151,146, issued March 21, 1939.

Gas may be continuously circulated through the gas space, entering through pipe 28 and leaving through pipe 29, The incoming gas may be fed in any suitable way as by a blower 39, and it is preferably discharged downwardly against the 'liquid surface and in an annular zone surrounding conduit 20. To this end, pipe 28 communicates with an annular hood 30 which surrounds conduit 20 and from which the gas is discharged downwardly against the surface of the liquid.

Reference will now .be had to Figs. 2, 3 and l 4 which show the details of the disseminating impeller. 24. This impeller may be cast in one piece, and it comprises ahub 40 from which radiate equal spaced radiaLblades 4! (six shown).

which extend circumferentially around impeller 24. The net result is that the liquid is discharged in a series of pseudo conical or funnellike loci, the funnel formations being concentric but with diiferent angles of slope. The boundaries of each locus are two pseudo frusto-conical surfaces that are coaxial and have different slopes; and the various loci or funnel formations are also coaxial and have different shapes. The

geometrical shapes are not truly conical because they are modified by the action of gravity on the flying drops, as well as by lifting effect of gas passing to exhaust 29. Of course the lifting .efiect varies with the size of the liquid drops and the rate of gas flow.

The trajectories of the liquid cannot be adequately shown one. two dimensional drawing;

shown trajectory lines 44b, 45b, 46b, and 21b Merging with the upper portions of the blades,

and extending above the tops of the blades, are radially spaced concentric rings 44, '45 and 46. At 43 the impeller isdrilled and tapped to receive a set screw for locking the impeller to the shaft. If desired the impeller may be cast with lugs or enlargements at 41, 48, 49 and 50 so that the impeller can be out in two and then bolted together. This makes it possible to insert the two impeller halves through a relatively smallmanhole in thetreatment tank and then bolt them back together againon the drive shaft. If the impeller is to be severed, it is out along dot dash lines iii and 52; and in conjunction therewith the lugs 41, 48, 49 and 50 are drilled and tapped as indicated to receive cap screws for holding the two halves together.

In operation the impeller 24 so rapidly and thoroughly disseminates the liquid that an exceedingly large effective surface area of gas andliquid contact is produced. It should be noted that the different rings of impeller 24 act in difierent degrees upon the different annular components of the column of liquid flowing up-. wardly through conduit 20. This is because the peripheral speed of the various'rings 44, 45.- and 46 (as well as the intervening sections of blades '4!) is different. Liquid which passes out between hub' 40 and ring 44 will have imparted to it a trajectory which involves the factors of (a) vertical velocity in tube 20, (b) radial ve- 'locity imparted by the section of blades 4! -be-= tween hub 40 and ring 44, and (c) the tangential velocity of ring 44. Of course this trajectory is a locus, rather than a single geometrical surand other factors.

which are merely hypothetical two dimensional trajectory lines to indicate theprogressive flattening of the trajectories.

If the speed of impeller 24 is relatively high and the rate of vertical flow to the impeller is relatively low, the liquid will be very finely subdivided and thereby produce a large total surface of gas and liquid contact in space ill.

To adjust the rate of vertical flow 'to impeller 26, a number of variables are available, including construction and speed of impeller 22, length of throat 25 in overlappi relation with the blades of impeller 22, amount of restriction established by member 21, level of liquid in tank 5, If a high rate'of gas flow is to be used, very flne liquid drops may be undesirable because such may be easily carried into exhaust 29, even if the exhaust pipe be made large to reduce entrainment. However, the present construction also produces large area of etfectlve gas and liquid contact with relative large liquid drops. Large drops are produced by in-' creasing the rate of vertical flow to impeller 24,

which means more rapid recirculation of the J drops as they strike the tank wall, prevents stale conditions from developing either within or with! out the surface of the drops. By stale conditions v we mean either a surrounding layer of gas which face as all of the liquid will notleave from the ing to (b) and (0) are increased; with resultant shifting of the trajectory loci. The shifting is toward flattening of the trajectories as the discharge point shifts outwardly of impeller 24; and

for this reason the surfaces 44a, 45a, and 48a of the respective rings are set at progressively less inclinationas shown in Fig. 3. K In all cases the trajectories are annular ones has had its potency reduced through the reaction with the drop, or 'a surface layer within the drop which has had its absorption capacity reduced through the reaction with the gas. Thus,

even with relatively large drops, the effective surface of 'gas and liquid contact is very high. In addition to the large surface of gas and liquid contact created in the main gas space, there is the surface contact of the gas with the liquid running down the tank walls and the con-. tact of. the ipcominggas with thetop of the main body ofliquid. Since tube 20 is kept in overflowing condition. impeller 24 operates under optimum conditions despite variations in the main liquid level. The over all contact surface is so large as to provide eflicient utilization of the gas and liquid, short reaction or treatment time, and oftensmall power consumption.

In compliance with the patent statutes we have the best form in which we,- have contemplatedi applying our but. it be understood that the disclosure is: illustrative 4 of the invention without. limiting the scope of the. invention.

What we claim is: 1. Gas and liquid contact apparatus cmnptis ing:: a closed vessel having liquid space at the bottom and gas space at the top; means to conduct liquid into the vessel; separate means to circulate gas into am out of the vessel; a stationary conduit located within the vessel and extending upwardly from the liquid space into the gas space; means to circulate the liquid in the vessel, the circulation taking the liquid upwardly through the conduit and discharging it into the gas space; and a rotary device separate from the conduit and-operative to disseminate the liquid as it is discharged into the gas space.

2. Gas and liquid contact apparatus comprising: a closed vessel having liquid space at the bottom and gas space at the top; means to conduct liquid into the vessel: separate means to circulate gas into and out or the vessel; a conduit located within the vessel and extending 'upwardly from the liquid space into the gas space; means'to circulate the liquid in the vessel, the

bottom and gas space at the top; means to conduct both gas and liquid into the vessel; a sta-- tionary conduit within the vessel and extending shaft above said conduit and operative-to disseminate the overflowing liquid.

7. Apparatus as in claim 6 in which the rotary device is an impeller having outwardly extending blades and also having spaced concentric rings.

8. Gas and liquid contact apparatus comprising: a closed vessel having liquid space at the rbottom and gas space at the top; a stationary conduit locatedmlthin the vessel and extending 1 charging the incoming gas downwardly in any circulation taking a column of liquid upwardly through the conduit and discharging it into the gas space; and a rotary device adjacent to the top ofthe conduit to disseminate the column of liquid as it is discharged from the conduit, said device including means to impart different trajectories to the diilerent annular components of the column of liquid, such trajectories varying progressively from the center portion of the column to the peripheral portion of the column.

annular zone surrounding said stationary conduit; means to circulate the liquid in the vessel,

the circulation taking the liquid upwardly liquid as it is discharged into the gas space.

9. In gas and liquid contact apparatus of the type .in which there is a liquid space, a gas space 3. Gas and liquid contact apparatus comprlsing; a clsed vessel having liquid space at the bottom and gas space at the top; means to conduct liquid into the vessel; separate means to circulate gas into and out of the vessel; a conduit located within the vessel and extending upwardly from the liquid space into the gas space; means to circulate the liquid in the vessel, the circulation taking the liquid upwardly through the top of the conduit to disseminate the over-- flowing liquid; the improvement which comthe conduit and discharging it into the gas space; a horizontal rotary impeller above the top of the conduit and operative to disseminate the liquid as it is discharged from the conduit; and annular means positioned adjacent to the top of the conduit to directthe flow-from the condult to the disseminating impeller, said annular means having an internal-diameter smaller than the;intemal diameter of the conduit.

4. Gas and liquid contact apparatus comprising: a closed vessel having liquid space at the bottom and gas space at the top; means to conduct both gas and liquid into the vessel; a broken syphon device to automatically limit the level of liquid 'in' the vessel; a conduit located within the vessel and opening bottom and top into the liquid space and gas space, respectively; means to establish flow of liquid from the liquid-space, through the conduit, and out into the gas space; and a rotary device adjacent to the top of the conduit and operative to disseminate the liquid as it is discharged into the gas space. 5.. Apparatus as in claim 1 in which the rotary device is an impeller having outwardly ex! tending blades" and also having spaced concentric rings.

6. Gasand liquid contact apparatus comprisprises: said impeller having at diflerent radii from its axis 01' rotation spaces through which the liquid flows upwardly, and having adjacent to said spaces means located at substantially the same level to throw the liquid outwardly from points located in a common horizontal plane but atdifferent radii from the axis of rotation.

10. in gas, and liquid contact apparatus of the type in which there is a liquid space. ag-as space above the'liquid space, a conduit extending upwardly from the liquid space into the gas space, 'flow producing means to keep the conduit in overflowing condition, and a rotary impeller at the top of the conduit to disseminate the overflowing liquid; the improvement which comprises: said impeller having. a series of concentric rings between which the liquid flows upwardly and from the tops of which the liquid is thrown .outwardly, the tops of said rings being at substantially the same level.

11. In gas and liquid contact apparatus of the type in which there is a liquid space, a gas space above the liquid space, a conduit extending upwardly from the liquid space into the gas space, flow producing means to keep the conduit in overflowing condition, and a rotary impeller at the top of the conduit to disseminate the overflowlng liquid; the improvement which comprises:. said impeller having a series of concentric rings between which the liquid flows upwardly and,

tially the same level, and the impeller also having outwardly extending blades running from rin to ring.

12. In gas and liquid contact apparatus of the type in which there is a liquid space, a gas spaceabove the liquid space, a conduit extending upwardly from the liquid space into the gas space, now producing means to keep the conduit in overflowing condition, and a rotary impellerat the top of the conduit to disseminate 10 

